FISH PAINTING

PAINT SCHEDULES FOR FISH
Developing Your Own
Text, photos and illustrations by Pat May
From the California Association of Taxidermists Newsletter (Vol. 13, No. 1, Jan. 2001)

Paint schedules are available for most common species of fish, however, developing your own will help separate you from the pack and make your work truly individual. Reference is the key to developing good paint schedules. It never ceases to amaze me how many subtle colors can be found by studying reference.

Start by making a pencil line drawing of a generic cold-water fish and a generic warm-water fish. Trace or copy this from a photo and then make extra photocopies. While studying reference photos or even a live fish, use the line drawing to make notes and sketches about the general overall colors of the fish. Now is also a good time to include any shape or anatomy details you see. Then try to look "underneath and on top of" the general colors on the skin so that you can see more details about the colors and patterns that make up the entire fish. Note colors as well as their intensity. Make note also of the transition from one color to the next. Ask yourself, is the transition faded or fuzzy? Is it hard and sharp? Are the colors blended or separate? Answer these questions first. Then make detailed, enlarged sketches of those particular areas of the fish, along with notations of what you saw so you will be able to apply the color in a fashion that more closely matches what you have seen in your reference pictures.

It is not too difficult to see and note the colors of a fish, especially with quality, close-up reference photos. It is more difficult, however, to...

...Continued in the Summer 2001 Issue of Breakthrough.

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